WO2020138176A1

WO2020138176A1 - Monitoring system, monitoring method, and monitoring program

Info

Publication number: WO2020138176A1
Application number: PCT/JP2019/050841
Authority: WO
Inventors: 一樹西海; 孝記中島; 中村　剛; 諭五島; 靖雄中島; 徳一朴; 雄一大林
Original assignee: 京セラドキュメントソリューションズ株式会社
Priority date: 2018-12-28
Filing date: 2019-12-25
Publication date: 2020-07-02
Also published as: CN113260984A; US20220066704A1; US11635923B2

Abstract

Provided are a monitoring system, a monitoring method, and a monitoring program with which it is possible to improve the stability of remote management of an image forming device employing a remote management system.　This monitoring system is characterized in that: information is acquired from a remote management system for remote management of an image forming device; a failure of the remote management system is detected by analyzing the acquired information; and a notification of the detected failure of the remote management system is issued.

Description

Monitoring system, monitoring method, and monitoring program

The present invention relates to a monitoring system, a monitoring method, and a monitoring program for a remote management system that remotely manages an image forming apparatus.

Conventionally, a remote management system that detects a failure of an image forming apparatus is known (for example, refer to Patent Documents 1-4).

Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-30152 Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent No. 6303875 Japanese Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent No. 6331778 Japanese Patent Document 4: Japanese Patent No. 2017-27124

However, in the conventional technique, a failure of the remote management system cannot be detected. Therefore, when a failure occurs in the remote management system, the remote management system cannot remotely manage the image forming apparatus. ..

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a monitoring system, a monitoring method, and a monitoring program capable of improving the stability of remote management of an image forming apparatus by the remote management system.

A monitoring system according to the present invention includes an information acquisition unit that acquires information from a remote management system that remotely manages an image forming apparatus, an information analysis unit that analyzes the information acquired by the information acquisition unit, and an analysis performed by the information analysis unit. And a result notifying unit for notifying the result of, the information analyzing unit detects a failure of the remote management system based on the information acquired by the information acquiring unit, and the result notifying unit is the information analyzing unit. The remote management system is notified of a fault detected by the remote management system.

With this configuration, the monitoring system of the present invention notifies a failure of the remote management system when a failure occurs in the remote management system, so that appropriate measures can be taken for the remote management system. Therefore, the monitoring system of the present invention can improve the stability of remote management of the image forming apparatus by the remote management system.

In the monitoring system of the present invention, the information acquisition unit may acquire information from at least one of the image forming apparatus and the ICT base on which the remote management system operates.

With this configuration, the monitoring system of the present invention performs remote management based on not only the information acquired from the remote management system but also the information acquired from at least one of the image forming apparatus and the ICT base on which the remote management system operates. Since the system failure is detected, the accuracy of detecting the failure of the remote management system can be improved.

In the monitoring system of the present invention, the information analysis unit is a time series, the importance of the failure indicated by the information, the degree of similarity between the failure indicated by the information and a failure that occurred in the past, and the component from which the information is acquired. The information may be sorted and analyzed according to at least one criterion as to whether or not a failure occurs simultaneously in different components.

With this configuration, the monitoring system of the present invention, the time series, the importance of the failure indicated by the information, the degree of similarity of the failure indicated by the information with the failure that occurred in the past, and the component from which the information was acquired Since the information is sorted and analyzed according to at least one criterion as to whether or not a failure has occurred in different components at the same time, it is noticeable by human monitoring based on a huge amount of information acquired from a remote management system or the like. Difficult, remote management system failures can be detected.

In the monitoring system of the present invention, when the failure of the remote management system analyzed by the information analysis unit satisfies a preset condition, the result notification unit is a notification destination set in association with this condition. May be notified of this failure.

With this configuration, the monitoring system of the present invention notifies the failure to the notification destination set in association with this condition when the detected failure satisfies the preset condition, so that it is appropriate according to the failure. It is possible to notify a human being of a disorder.

A monitoring method of the present invention using a computer and a storage unit includes an information acquisition step of acquiring information from a remote management system that remotely manages an image forming apparatus, and an information analysis step of analyzing the information acquired in the information acquisition step. And a result notifying step of notifying the result of the analysis in the information analyzing step, wherein the information analyzing step includes a step of detecting a failure of the remote management system based on the information acquired in the information acquiring step. However, the result notifying step has a step of notifying a failure of the remote management system detected in the information analyzing step.

With this configuration, the monitoring method of the present invention notifies a failure of the remote management system when a failure occurs in the remote management system, so that appropriate measures can be taken for the remote management system. Therefore, the monitoring method of the present invention can improve the stability of remote management of the image forming apparatus by the remote management system.

A monitoring program according to the present invention includes an information acquisition unit that acquires information from a remote management system that remotely manages an image forming apparatus, an information analysis unit that analyzes the information acquired by the information acquisition unit, and an analysis performed by the information analysis unit. A result notifying unit for notifying the result of the computer, the information analyzing unit detects a failure of the remote management system based on the information acquired by the information acquiring unit, and the result notifying unit, It is characterized in that a failure of the remote management system detected by the information analysis unit is notified.

With this configuration, the computer that executes the monitoring program of the present invention notifies the failure of the remote management system when a failure occurs in the remote management system, so that appropriate measures can be taken for the remote management system. it can. Therefore, the computer that executes the monitoring program of the present invention can improve the stability of remote management of the image forming apparatus by the remote management system.

The monitoring system, monitoring method, and monitoring program of the present invention can improve the stability of remote management of the image forming apparatus by the remote management system.

1 is a block diagram of a system according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram of the remote management system shown in FIG. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the monitoring system shown in FIG. 1 when configured with one computer. 4 is a flowchart of the operation of the monitoring system shown in FIG. 3 when notifying the occurrence of a failure. It is a block diagram of the 1st modification of the monitoring system shown in FIG. 1 at the time of comprising one computer. It is a figure which shows an example of the cloud failure table shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the temporary management table shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the failure history table shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the notification destination determination table shown in FIG. 6 is a flowchart of the operation of the monitoring system shown in FIG. 5 when updating the cloud failure table. 6 is a flowchart of the operation of the monitoring system shown in FIG. 5 when notifying the occurrence of a failure. It is a block diagram of the 2nd modification of the monitoring system shown in FIG. 1 at the time of comprising one computer. 13 is a flowchart of the operation of the monitoring system shown in FIG. 12 when notifying the occurrence of a failure. FIG. 14 is a flowchart continued from the flowchart shown in FIG. 13. 15 is a flowchart of a modified example of the operation shown in FIGS. 13 and 14.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

First, the configuration of the system according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system 10 according to this embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 1, the system 10 includes a network 20 such as a LAN (Local Area Network) for customers of a company that manages image forming apparatuses (hereinafter referred to as “management company”). The system 10 may include, in addition to the network 20, at least one network having the same configuration as the network 20.

The network 20 includes a firewall 21 that controls communication between the inside of the network 20 and the outside of the network 20, and an image forming apparatus 22. In addition to the image forming apparatus 22, the network 20 can include at least one image forming apparatus having the same configuration as the image forming apparatus 22. The image forming apparatus in the network 20 is composed of, for example, an MFP (Multifunction Peripheral), a printer-dedicated machine, and the like, and is used by a customer of a management company.

The system 10 includes a remote management system 30 that remotely manages each image forming apparatus in the system 10. The remote management system 30 is used by a management company. The remote management system 30 may be composed of one computer or a plurality of computers. In the following, the remote management system 30 will be described as operating on a public cloud cloud platform as an ICT (Information and Communication Technology) base.

Since a large number of image forming apparatuses can be connected to the remote management system 30 via the Internet, the capacity of the server forming the remote management system 30 is increased as the number of image forming apparatuses connected to the remote management system 30 increases. , Flexibly expanded. Further, in the cloud platform on which the remote management system 30 operates, a part of the system may go down at a timing when the remote management system 30 does not understand due to system failure or maintenance of the cloud platform. Therefore, the remote management system 30 needs to take appropriate measures when a failure occurs in a component of the remote management system 30 for stable operation of the remote management system 30 itself. 30 own components need to be monitored.

The system 10 includes a cloud provider server 40 which is an endpoint provided by a provider of a cloud platform on which the remote management system 30 operates.

The system 10 includes a monitoring system 50 that monitors the remote management system 30. The monitoring system 50 is used by a management company. The monitoring system 50 may be composed of one computer or plural computers.

Each network in the system 10, the remote management system 30, the cloud provider server 40, and the monitoring system 50 can communicate with each other via the Internet 11.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the remote management system 30.

As shown in FIG. 2, the remote management system 30 includes a command server 31 that issues control commands to the image forming apparatus. In addition to the command server 31, the remote management system 30 can include at least one command server having the same configuration as the command server 31. When the connection with the image forming apparatus is established, the command server can issue a control command that exceeds the firewall to the image forming apparatus. For example, one command server can be simultaneously connected to 4000 image forming apparatuses.

The remote management system 30 processes information necessary for management of the image forming apparatus transmitted from the image forming apparatus connected through the firewall, and connects to the command server appropriate for the image forming apparatus. The device management server 32 for instructing to establish Here, the appropriate command server is, for example, a command server having the smallest number of image forming apparatuses to which the connection is established. In addition to the device management server 32, the remote management system 30 can include at least one device management server having the same configuration as the device management server 32. For example, one device management server can execute processing for 2000 image forming apparatuses per minute.

The remote management system 30 includes a load balancer 33 that distributes the load by allocating the information necessary for managing the image forming apparatus transmitted from the image forming apparatus connected through the firewall to an appropriate device management server. ing.

The remote management system 30 manages operations for performing various remote operations of the image forming apparatus, such as acquisition of various information from the image forming apparatus, updating of control software of the image forming apparatus, various settings of the image forming apparatus. It has a user management server 34 that receives information from users such as service persons of a trader. The command server maintains the image forming apparatus by transmitting the operation accepted by the user management server 34 to the image forming apparatus as a control command.

The remote management system 30 includes a database 35 and a cache server 36 that store various information collected from the image forming apparatus by the command server, such as a print counter of the image forming apparatus and information about authentication of the image forming apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the monitoring system 50 when it is configured by one computer.

The monitoring system 50 shown in FIG. 3 is an operation unit 51 that is an operation device such as a keyboard and a mouse to which various operations are input, and a display device such as an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) that displays various information. The display unit 52, a communication unit 53 that is a communication device that communicates with an external device directly via a network such as a LAN or the Internet, or directly by wire or wirelessly without a network, and stores various kinds of information. For example, a storage unit 54 that is a non-volatile storage device such as a semiconductor memory or an HDD (Hard Disk Drive), and a control unit 55 that controls the entire monitoring system 50 are provided.

The storage unit 54 stores a monitoring program 54a for monitoring the remote management system 30 (see FIG. 2). The monitoring program 54a may be installed in the monitoring system 50 at the manufacturing stage of the monitoring system 50, or may be installed in an external device such as a CD (Compact Disk), a DVD (Digital Versatile Disk), or a USB (Universal Serial Bus) memory. It may be additionally installed in the monitoring system 50 from a storage medium, or may be additionally installed in the monitoring system 50 from a network.

The storage unit 54 stores a processing table 54b indicating processing according to a failure. The control unit 55 can update the processing table 54b according to an instruction via the operation unit 51 or the communication unit 53.

The storage unit 54 can store a notification destination determination table 54c for determining the notification destination of the failure occurrence. The notification destination determination table 54c is information associating the condition for notification of failure occurrence with the notification destination of failure occurrence. The control unit 55 can update the notification destination determination table 54c according to an instruction via the operation unit 51 or the communication unit 53.

The control unit 55 includes, for example, a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a ROM (Read Only Memory) that stores programs and various data, and a RAM (Random Memory) that is used as a work area of the CPU of the control unit 55. Access Memory). The CPU of the control unit 55 executes the program stored in the storage unit 54 or the ROM of the control unit 55.

The control unit 55 executes the monitoring program 54a to acquire information from the components of the system 10, an information analysis unit 57 that analyzes the information acquired by the information acquisition unit 56, and an information analysis. A result notification unit 58 that notifies the result of the analysis by the unit 57 is realized.

The information acquisition unit 56 includes an information acquisition adapter 56a that is a module for acquiring information from the components of the system 10. Here, the components of the system 10 include the image forming apparatus in the system 10, the components of the remote management system 30, and the cloud provider server 40. The components of the remote management system 30 include a command server, a device management server, a user management server 34, a database 35, and a cache server 36. The information acquisition unit 56 can include at least one information acquisition adapter having the same configuration as the information acquisition adapter 56a in addition to the information acquisition adapter 56a. The information acquired from the image forming apparatus by the information acquisition adapter is, for example, information on whether the image forming apparatus is stopped or information on an error that has occurred in the image forming apparatus. The information acquired from the constituent element of the remote management system 30 by the information acquisition adapter is, for example, information on whether this constituent element is stopped or information on an error that has occurred in this constituent element. The information acquired from the cloud provider server 40 by the information acquisition adapter is, for example, information related to maintenance of the cloud platform on which the remote management system 30 operates, and information on whether or not this cloud platform is operating normally.

At least one of the components of the system 10, such as the image forming apparatus, the command server, the device management server, the user management server 34, the database 35, the cache server 36, and the cloud provider server 40 in the system 10, is connected to the monitoring system 50. An agent for outputting information may be installed. The agent can output to the monitoring system 50 information for debugging the installed components and information on more detailed operation status of the installed components.

The information acquisition unit 56 includes an information acquisition processing unit 56b that acquires information by the information acquisition adapter. Since the information acquisition function of the information acquisition unit 56 is constructed by the information acquisition adapter, the information acquisition function can be flexibly expanded in accordance with the expansion of the function of the remote management system 30. Therefore, the monitoring system 50 can minimize the changes accompanying the functional expansion of the remote management system 30.

The information analysis unit 57 is acquired by the information acquisition unit 56, and a logic generation unit 57a that generates the information distribution logic acquired by the information acquisition unit 56 by a known learning algorithm such as machine learning, neurocomputing, and deep learning. The information distribution unit 57b that distributes the generated information according to the logic generated by the logic generation unit 57a. Examples of the information distribution logic generated by the logic generation unit 57a include, for example, a time-series information distribution logic, a failure information importance distribution logic, and a degree of similarity with a failure that occurred in the past. There is a logic for distributing information according to the above, and a logic for distributing information depending on whether or not a failure has occurred in other components at the same time. The importance of the failure may be determined according to a specific rule, for example, based on at least one of the location of the failure and the frequency of occurrence of the failure.

The information analysis unit 57 includes a failure detection unit 57c that detects a failure of the remote management system 30 based on the information distributed by the information distribution unit 57b. For example, the information analysis unit 57 establishes communication between the image forming apparatus and the remote management system 30 based on the information acquired from the image forming apparatus in the system 10 and the information acquired from the components of the remote management system 30. Whether or not it can be detected. Further, the information analysis unit 57 performs the remote operation of the image forming apparatus correctly by the remote management system 30 based on the information acquired from the image forming apparatus in the system 10 and the information acquired from the components of the remote management system 30. It is possible to detect whether or not it has been broken. In addition, the information analysis unit 57 can detect whether the cloud platform on which the remote management system 30 operates is operating normally, based on the information acquired from the cloud provider server 40.

The information analysis unit 57 includes a process determination unit 57d that determines the process associated with the failure detected by the failure detection unit 57c in the processing table 54b. The processing determined by the processing determination unit 57d includes, for example, restart of the remote management system 30, scale out of the cloud platform on which the remote management system 30 operates, data maintenance of the database 35, capacity increase of the database 35, remote There is disconnection of a server in which a problem occurs in the management system 30.

When the failure analyzed by the information analysis section 57 satisfies the condition set in the notification destination determination table 54c, the result notification unit 58 notifies the notification destination set in the notification destination determination table 54c according to the failure. First, a message transmission adapter 58a, which is a module for transmitting a message indicating this failure, is provided. For example, the result notification unit 58 may send a message indicating the occurrence of a failure of which importance is lower than a specific importance to only a technician who can perform appropriate measures for the remote management system 30. A message indicating that a failure having a higher importance than a specific importance has occurred is sent to the remote management system 30 not only by the technician who can execute appropriate measures but also by the management of the image forming apparatus. It may be sent to a wider range of stakeholders, such as existing distributors.

The result notification unit 58 is a command transmission adapter 58b that is a module for transmitting the processing command determined by the processing determination unit 57d to one of the remote management system 30 and the cloud provider server 40 that is suitable for this command. Is equipped with.

The result notification unit 58 includes a notification processing unit 58c that controls the message transmission adapter 58a and the command transmission adapter 58b. The result notifying unit 58 has a notification function built by modules such as the message sending adapter 58a and the command sending adapter 58b, so that the notification function can be flexibly expanded according to the function expansion of the remote management system 30. be able to. Therefore, the monitoring system 50 can minimize the changes accompanying the functional expansion of the remote management system 30.

Next, the operation of the monitoring system 50 when notifying the occurrence of a failure will be described.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the operation of the monitoring system 50 when notifying the occurrence of a failure.

The control unit 55 of the monitoring system 50 executes the operation shown in FIG. 4 at a specific timing such as a regular timing such as every second.

As shown in FIG. 4, the information acquisition processing unit 56b attempts to collect information from the components of the system 10 (S101).

Next, the information distribution unit 57b distributes the information acquired in S101 by the logic generated by the logic generation unit 57a (S102).

Next, the failure detection unit 57c attempts to detect a failure of the remote management system 30 based on the information distributed in S102 (S103). For example, when the load on the command server increases by a certain degree or more, the failure detection unit 57c determines that the number of image forming apparatuses connected to the command server decreases by a certain degree or more. It may be detected as a failure. In addition, when the load on the database 35 increases by a certain degree or more, the failure detecting unit 57c detects the failure of the data acquisition from the database 35 as a failure of the database 35 when the failure occurs by more than a certain degree. Is also good. The failure detection unit 57c predicts the occurrence of a failure of the remote management system 30 based on the information distributed in S102 by a known learning algorithm such as machine learning, neurocomputing, deep learning, etc. It is also possible to detect it before it occurs.

After the processing of S103, the failure detection unit 57c determines whether a failure of the remote management system 30 has been detected in S103 (S104).

When the failure detection unit 57c determines in S104 that no failure of the remote management system 30 has been detected, the operation illustrated in FIG. 4 ends.

When it is determined in S104 that a failure of the remote management system 30 has been detected, the processing determination unit 57d determines the processing associated with the failure detected in S103 in the processing table 54b (S105).

Next, the notification processing unit 58c determines whether the failure detected in S103 satisfies the condition set in the notification destination determination table 54c (S106).

If the notification processing unit 58c determines in S106 that the failure detected in S103 does not satisfy the condition set in the notification destination determination table 54c, the operation illustrated in FIG. 4 ends.

When the message transmission adapter 58a determines in S106 that the failure detected in S103 satisfies the condition set in the notification destination determination table 54c, the message transmission adapter 58a sets the failure in the notification destination determination table 54c according to the failure. A message indicating this failure is transmitted to the notified notification destination (S107).

Next, the command transmission adapter 58b transmits the processing command determined in S105 to one of the remote management system 30 and the cloud provider server 40 that is suitable for this command (S108), and the operation shown in FIG. To finish.

Although the monitoring system 50 has transmitted the processing command determined in S105 in S108, the monitoring system 50 does not execute the processing in S108 and sends a message including the contents of the processing determined in S105. You may transmit in S107.

As described above, when the remote management system 30 has a failure (YES in S104), the monitoring system 50 notifies the remote management system 30 of the failure (S107). Appropriate action can be taken. Therefore, the monitoring system 50 can improve the stability of remote management of the image forming apparatus by the remote management system 30.

The monitoring system 50 uses the information acquired from the remote management system 30 as well as the information acquired from at least one of the image forming apparatus and the cloud platform on which the remote management system 30 operates to detect a failure of the remote management system 30. Is detected (S101 to S103), it is possible to improve the accuracy of detecting a failure of the remote management system 30.

The monitoring system 50 uses the time series, the importance of the failure indicated by the information, the similarity between the failure indicated by the information and the failure that occurred in the past, and the failure at the same time as the constituent element different from the constituent element from which the information is acquired. Since information is sorted and analyzed according to at least one criterion as to whether or not the occurrence has occurred (S102 to S103), it is noticeable by human monitoring based on the huge amount of information acquired from the remote management system 30 or the like. It is possible to detect a difficult failure of the remote management system 30.

When the detected failure satisfies the preset condition (YES in S106), the monitoring system 50 notifies the notification destination set in association with this condition of this failure (S107). You can notify the appropriate person of the failure.

The monitoring system 50 is realized by a computer different from the remote management system 30 in this embodiment. However, at least some of the computers that implement the remote management system 30 and at least some of the computers that implement the monitoring system 50 may be the same.

Next, a first modification of the above embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 to 11.

As shown in FIG. 5, the monitoring system 50 of the present modified example is capable of storing a further table in addition to the table stored in the storage unit 54 in the above-described embodiment, and the information acquisition unit 56 uses the stored table. By performing analysis by the information analysis unit 57 and notification by the result notification unit 58 on the collected information, it is possible to realize a monitoring system that achieves the same technical effect as the above-described embodiment. In the description of this modification, the same components as those in the above-mentioned embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted.

As shown in FIG. 5, the storage unit 54 can store a cloud failure table 54c indicating a failure that has occurred in the cloud platform on which the remote management system 30 operates.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of the cloud failure table 54c.

The cloud failure table 54c shown in FIG. 6 is created based on failure information collected from the cloud platform on which the remote management system 30 operates. The cloud failure table 54c illustrated in FIG. 6 includes the original text of the failure content collected from the cloud platform on which the remote management system 30 operates, the failure location, the failure area, the failure code indicating the failure, and the failure code. The start date and time and the end date and time of the failure are shown for each failure.

As shown in FIG. 5, the storage unit 54 can store a temporary management table 54d for temporarily managing a failure that has occurred in the remote management system 30.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of the temporary management table 54d.

In the temporary management table 54d shown in FIG. 7, the original text of the content of the failure collected from the remote management system 30, the location of the failure, the area where the failure occurred, the importance of the failure, and the cause of the failure are displayed in the remote management system 30. For each failure, the location of the failure factor, the failure detection date and time, and the degree of similarity with other failures that occurred in the past are shown. In the temporary management table 54d shown in FIG. 5, the importance of the failure, the location of the factor, and the similarity of which the detection date and time is “2018/09/22 15:00” are omitted.

As shown in FIG. 5, the storage unit 54 can store a failure history table 54e indicating a history of failures that have occurred in the remote management system 30.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of the failure history table 54e.

The failure history table 54e shown in FIG. 8 includes the original text of the failure content collected from the remote management system 30, the location of the failure, the area where the failure occurred, the importance of the failure, the location of the failure factor, and the failure. The detection date and time and the similarity with other failures that occurred in the past are shown for each failure.

As shown in FIG. 5, the storage unit 54 can store a notification destination determination table 54f for determining the notification destination of the failure occurrence.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of the notification destination determination table 54f.

The notification destination determination table 54f shown in FIG. 9 is a combination of the location of the failure, the area where the failure occurs, the importance of the failure, the location of the cause of the failure, and the similarity with other failures that occurred in the past. The notification destination of failure occurrence and the content of notification of failure occurrence are shown for each condition of notification of failure occurrence. Here, in the notification destination determination table 54f, a range may be set as the importance of the failure, such as 50 or more and less than 60. In the notification destination determination table 54f, a range may be set for the similarity as well as the importance. Further, in the notification destination determination table 54f, the location of the cause of failure may be set by distinguishing whether it is inside or outside the remote management system 30, or inside or outside the remote management system 30. However, it may be set to be good. In the notification destination determination table 54f illustrated in FIG. 9, the location, the occurrence area, the importance, and the similarity are "Service A", "US", "50 or more and less than 60", and "60" in the notification condition. “Location” is set so that it may be inside or outside the remote management system 30.

The control unit 55 shown in FIG. 5 can update the notification destination determination table 54f in accordance with an instruction via the operation unit 51 or the communication unit 53.

In addition, when the failure analyzed by the information analysis unit 57 satisfies the condition set in the notification destination determination table 54f, the result notification unit 58 of the present modified example responds to the failure by the notification destination determination table 54f. A message sending adapter 58a, which is a module for sending a message indicating this failure, is provided at the notification destination set to. For example, the result notification unit 58 may send a message indicating the occurrence of a failure of which importance is lower than a specific importance to only a technician who can perform appropriate measures for the remote management system 30. A message indicating that a failure having a higher importance than a specific importance has occurred is sent to the remote management system 30 not only by the technician who can execute appropriate measures but also by the management of the image forming apparatus. It may be sent to a wider range of stakeholders, such as existing distributors.

Next, the operation of the monitoring system 50 when updating the cloud failure table 54c will be described.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of the operation of the monitoring system 50 when updating the cloud failure table 54c.

Also in this modification, the control unit 55 of the monitoring system 50 executes the operation shown in FIG. 10 at a specific timing, such as a regular timing such as every second.

As shown in FIG. 10, the information acquisition unit 56 attempts to collect, from the cloud provider server 40, information on a failure that has occurred in the cloud platform on which the remote management system 30 operates (S111).

Next, the failure detection unit 57c determines whether or not failure information has been collected in S111 (S112).

When the failure detection unit 57c determines in S112 that the failure information has been collected, the failure detection unit 57c adds the failure information collected in S111 to the cloud failure table 54c (S113).

The fault detection unit 57c terminates the operation shown in FIG. 10 when it determines in S112 that fault information has not been collected or when the process of S113 ends.

Next, the operation of the monitoring system 50 in the case of notifying the occurrence of a failure in this modification will be described.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of the operation of the monitoring system 50 when notifying the occurrence of a failure.

The control unit 55 of the monitoring system 50 executes the operation shown in FIG. 11 at a specific timing, such as a regular timing such as every second.

As shown in FIG. 11, the information acquisition processing unit 56b attempts to collect information from the image forming apparatus in the system 10 and the constituent elements of the remote management system 30 (S121).

Next, the failure detection unit 57c determines whether or not the information indicating the failure of the remote management system 30 has been collected in S121 (S122).

When the failure detection unit 57c determines in S122 that information indicating a failure of the remote management system 30 has not been collected, the operation illustrated in FIG. 11 ends.

When the failure detection unit 57c determines in S122 that the information indicating the failure of the remote management system 30 has been collected, the failure detection unit 57c adds the failure information determined in S122 to the temporary management table 54d (S123). Here, the failure added to the temporary management table 54d in S123 is important just after the end of the processing in S123, such as the failure whose detection date and time is "2018/09/22 15:00" shown in FIG. The degree, the location of the factor, and the degree of similarity are not yet remembered.

After the processing of S123, the failure detection unit 57c determines another failure that occurred in the past based on the failure information added to the temporary management table 54d in S123 and the past failure information shown in the failure history table 54e. On the other hand, the similarity of the fault added to the temporary management table 54d in S123 is determined according to a specific determination method (S124). The determination method in S124 may be, for example, a method using a known learning process algorithm such as known statistical processing or machine learning, neuro-computing, deep learning, or the like.

After the processing of S124, the failure detection unit 57c adds the similarity determined in S124 to the failure information added to the temporary management table 54d in S123 (S125).

Next, the failure detection unit 57c determines the importance of the failure added to the temporary management table 54d in S123 according to a specific determination method (S126). The determination method in S126 may be, for example, a method of determining according to a specific rule, based on at least one of the location of the failure and the frequency of occurrence of the failure.

After the processing of S126, the failure detection unit 57c adds the degree of importance determined in S126 to the failure information added to the temporary management table 54d in S123 (S127).

Next, the failure detection unit 57c corresponds to the failure added to the temporary management table 54d in S123 based on the failure information added to the temporary management table 54d in S123 and the failure information shown in the cloud failure table 54c. It is determined whether the failure is related to the failure shown in the cloud failure table 54c, that is, the failure of the cloud platform on which the remote management system 30 operates (S128). That is, when the failure location, occurrence area, and detection date and time of the failure added to the temporary management table 54d in S123 are included in the information of any failure shown in the cloud failure table 54c, the failure detection unit 57c performs temporary management in S123. It is determined in S128 that the failure added to the table 54d is related to the failure shown in the cloud failure table 54c. For example, the failure detection unit 57c determines that the location, the occurrence area, and the detection date and time shown in FIG. 7 are “Service A”, “US”, and “2018/09/22 15:00”, respectively. The original text, the area of occurrence, the start date and time and the end date and time are "Service A has failed.", "US", "2018/09/22 14:00" and "2018/09/22 16:00", respectively. Determined to be related to a disorder.

Since it may take time for the failure of the cloud platform on which the remote management system 30 operates to be reflected in the cloud failure table 54c, the failure detection unit 57c determines that a specific time has elapsed after the processing of S127. After that, the process of S128 may be executed.

When the failure detection unit 57c determines in S128 that the failure corresponding to the failure added to the temporary management table 54d in S123 is related to the failure of the cloud platform on which the remote management system 30 operates, the failure cause is the remote management system 30. The fact that it is external is stored as the location of the cause of failure added to the temporary management table 54d in S123 (S129).

When the failure detection unit 57c determines in S128 that the failure corresponding to the failure added to the temporary management table 54d in S123 is not related to the failure of the cloud platform on which the remote management system 30 operates, the cause of the failure is the remote management system 30. Is stored as the location of the failure factor added to the temporary management table 54d in S123 (S130).

After the processing of S129 or S130, the failure detection unit 57c moves the failure added to the temporary management table 54d in S123 to the failure history table 54e (S131). That is, the failure detection unit 57c reflects all the current information of the failure added to the temporary management table 54d in S123 on the failure history table 54e, and all the failure information added to the temporary management table 54d in S123 at the current time. Information is deleted from the temporary management table 54d. ‥

After the processing of S131, the notification processing unit 58c determines the failure moved to the failure history table 54e in S131 based on the failure information moved to the failure history table 54e in S131 and the notification destination determination table 54f. On the other hand, the notification destination of the failure occurrence and the notification content of the failure occurrence set in the notification destination determination table 54f are determined (S132). That is, the notification processing unit 58c indicates the location of the failure, the area where the failure occurred, the importance of the failure, the location of the cause of the failure, and other failures that occurred in the past, which are indicated in the notification destination determination table 54f. From the combination with the similarity degree of No., the location of the failure moved to the failure history table 54e in S131, the area where the failure occurred, the importance of the failure, the location of the cause of the failure, and other past occurrences. The combination corresponding to the similarity with the failure is specified, and the notification destination of the failure occurrence and the notification content of the failure occurrence shown in the notification destination determination table 54f are determined for the specified combination. For example, the notification processing unit 58c may notify only a technician who can execute appropriate measures to the remote management system 30 regarding a failure whose importance level is lower than a specific importance level. With respect to a failure whose degree is higher than a certain degree of importance, not only a technician who can perform appropriate measures for the remote management system 30 but also a wider range of interests such as a sales company that manages the image forming apparatus. The person concerned may be the notification destination.

After the processing of S132, the notification processing unit 58c notifies the notification destination determined in S132 with the notification content determined in S132 (S133). Here, the notification processing unit 58c may include various kinds of information in the failure history table 54e regarding the failure moved to the failure history table 54e in S131 in the notification content notified in S133.

After the processing of S133, the notification processing unit 58c moves to the failure history table 54e in S131 whether the location of the cause of the failure moved to the failure history table 54e in S131 is outside the remote management system 30. The determination is made based on the location of the factor of the failure (S134).

When the notification processing unit 58c determines in S134 that the location of the cause of the failure moved to the failure history table 54e in S131 is outside the remote management system 30, it notifies the provider of the cloud platform on which the remote management system 30 operates. Then, a support request for notifying the content of the failure is issued (S135).

The notification processing unit 58c determines in S134 that the location of the failure factor moved to the failure history table 54e in S131 is not outside the remote management system 30 or when the processing of S135 ends, the operation shown in FIG. finish.

As described above, in the monitoring system 50 of the present modification, when a failure occurs in the remote management system 30 (YES in S122), the failure of the remote management system 30 is appropriately determined according to the importance of this failure. Since the notification is sent to the appropriate notification destination (S132 to S133), appropriate measures can be taken for the remote management system 30. Therefore, the monitoring system 50 can improve the stability of remote management of the image forming apparatus by the remote management system 30.

Also in this modification, the monitoring system 50 detects a failure of the remote management system 30 based not only on the information acquired from the remote management system 30 but also on the information acquired from the image forming apparatus (S121 to S122). The accuracy of detecting a failure of the remote management system 30 can be improved.

Further, the monitoring system 50 detects the failure of the remote management system 30 based not only on the information acquired from the remote management system 30 but also on the information acquired from the cloud platform on which the remote management system 30 operates (S121 to S122). Therefore, the accuracy of detecting a failure of the remote management system 30 can be improved.

Furthermore, when the cause of the failure of the remote management system 30 is due to the failure of the cloud platform (YES in S134), the monitoring system 50 sends a support request for notifying the content of the failure to the provider of the cloud platform. Since it is issued to the remote management system 30 (S135), the possibility that appropriate measures will be taken for the cloud platform on which the remote management system 30 operates increases, and as a result, the stability of remote management of the image forming apparatus by the remote management system 30 is improved. Can be improved.

When the location of the cause of failure of the remote management system 30 is outside the remote management system 30 (YES in S134), the monitoring system 50 notifies the provider of the cloud platform on which the remote management system 30 operates of the failure. Since the support request for notifying the contents is issued (S135), it is possible to prompt the cloud platform provider to promptly recover from the failure of the cloud platform. However, the monitoring system 50 may end the operation illustrated in FIG. 11 without executing the processes of S134 and S135 after the process of S133.

In the present embodiment, the conditions for notification of the occurrence of a failure in the notification destination determination table 54f include the location of the failure, the area where the failure occurs, the importance of the failure, the location of the cause of the failure, and the location of the past occurrence. It includes the degree of similarity with other obstacles that have occurred. However, the conditions of notification of occurrence of a failure include at least the location of the failure, the area where the failure occurs, the importance of the failure, the location of the cause of the failure, and the similarity with other failures that occurred in the past. One may not be included.

Also in this modification, the monitoring system 50 is realized by a computer different from the remote management system 30. However, at least some of the computers that implement the remote management system 30 and at least some of the computers that implement the monitoring system 50 may be the same.

Next, a second modification of the above embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 12 to 15.

The monitoring system 50 of the present modification makes it possible to further store a failure treatment table in the storage unit 54 of the first modification, and uses the table stored in the storage unit to store information on the information collected by the information acquisition unit 56. The analysis by the analysis unit 57 and the notification by the result notification unit 58 are performed, and a predetermined action is automatically executed to the remote management system according to the analysis result. Also according to this modification, it is possible to realize a monitoring system that achieves the same technical effects as the above-described embodiment. Also in the description of the present modification, the same components as those of the above-described embodiment and the first modification are designated by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted here.

The storage unit 54 is capable of storing a failure treatment table 54g that indicates a failure action for each failure. The control unit 55 can update the failure treatment table 54g according to an instruction via the operation unit 51 or the communication unit 53.

13 and 14 are flowcharts of the operation of the monitoring system 50 in the case of notifying the occurrence of a failure in this modification. Since the operation of the monitoring system 50 when updating the cloud failure table 54c is the same as that of the first modification, its description is omitted in this modification.

The control unit 55 of the monitoring system 50 executes the operation shown in FIGS. 13 and 14 at a specific timing, such as a regular timing such as every second.

Steps S121 to S131 are the same as those of the first modified example, and therefore the description thereof is omitted here.

After the processing of S131, the notification processing unit 58c determines the failure moved to the failure history table 54e in S131 based on the failure information moved to the failure history table 54e in S131 and the notification destination determination table 54f. On the other hand, the notification destination of the failure occurrence set in the notification destination determination table 54f is determined (S132). That is, the notification processing unit 58c selects the failure in S131 from the combinations of the failure location, the failure occurrence area, the failure importance, and the failure factor location shown in the notification destination determination table 54f. The combination corresponding to the location of the failure, the area where the failure has occurred, the importance of the failure, and the location of the cause of the failure, which have been moved to the history table 54e, is identified, and the notification destination determination table 54f is specified for the identified combination. Determine the notification destination of the failure occurrence shown in. For example, the notification processing unit 58c may notify only a technician who can execute appropriate measures to the remote management system 30 regarding a failure whose importance level is lower than a specific importance level. With respect to a failure whose degree is higher than a certain degree of importance, not only a technician who can perform appropriate measures for the remote management system 30 but also a wider range of interests such as a sales company that manages the image forming apparatus. The person concerned may be the notification destination.

After the processing of S132, the notification processing unit 58c determines whether or not the similarity of the failure moved to the failure history table 54e in S131 with other failures that occurred in the past is equal to or higher than the first similarity. Yes (S136).

When the notification processing unit 58c determines in S133 that the similarity is equal to or higher than the first similarity, the failure determined in S133 that the similarity to the failure moved to the failure history table 54e in S131 is equal to or higher than the first similarity. Is displayed in the failure treatment table 54g (S137).

The notification processing unit 58c determines in S137 that the failure determined in S136 that the similarity to the failure moved to the failure history table 54e in S131 is equal to or higher than the first similarity is indicated in the failure treatment table 54g. Then, in the remote management system 30, the fault management table 30g associates the fault determined in S136 with the fault that has been moved to the fault history table 54e in S131 and has a similarity not lower than the first similarity. On the other hand, it is automatically executed (S138).

Next, the notification processing unit 58c includes, in the notification content scheduled to be notified to the notification destination determined in S132, the fact that the appropriate action has been performed (S1369).

If the notification processing unit 58c determines in S136 that the similarity is not equal to or higher than the first similarity, the similarity of the failure moved to the failure history table 54e in S131 to the other failure that occurred in the past is the second similarity. It is determined whether it is less than (S140). Here, the second similarity may be equal to or lower than the first similarity.

When the notification processing unit 58c determines in S140 that the degree of similarity is less than the second similarity, the notification processing unit 58c includes, in the notification content scheduled to be notified to the notification destination determined in S132, a serious failure that has not been experienced in the past. (S141).

The notification processing unit 58c determines in S137 that the failure determined in S136 that the similarity to the failure moved to the failure history table 54e in S131 is equal to or higher than the first similarity is not indicated in the failure treatment table 54g. Then, the process of S139 is performed, it is determined in S140 that the degree of similarity is not less than the second similarity, or when the process of S141 is performed, the notification destination determined in S132 is notified to the notification destination indicating that a failure has occurred. Notify (S142). Here, the notification processing unit 58c may include various information in the failure history table 54e regarding the failure moved to the failure history table 54e in S131 in the notification content notified in S142. In addition, when the processing of S139 has been executed, the notification processing unit 58c includes, in the notification content of which the notification is performed in S142, that the appropriate treatment has been executed. In addition, when the processing of S141 has been executed, the notification processing unit 58c includes in the notification content of which the notification in S142 is a serious failure that has not been experienced in the past.

After the processing of S142, the notification processing unit 58c moves to the failure history table 54e in S131 whether the location of the cause of the failure moved to the failure history table 54e in S131 is outside the remote management system 30. The determination is made based on the location of the factor of the failure (S143).

If the notification processing unit 58c determines in S143 that the location of the cause of the failure moved to the failure history table 54e in S131 is outside the remote management system 30, the notification processing unit 58c informs the provider of the cloud platform on which the remote management system 30 operates. Then, a support request for notifying the content of the failure is issued (S144).

The notification processing unit 58c determines in S143 that the location of the cause of the failure moved to the failure history table 54e in S131 is not outside the remote management system 30, or when the processing in S144 ends, the notification processing section 58c is displayed as shown in FIGS. The operation shown is ended.

As described above, when a failure has occurred in the remote management system 30 (YES in S122), the monitoring system 50 regards the failure of the remote management system 30 as a degree of similarity between this failure and a failure that occurred in the past. Since notification is made with the notification content according to (S136 to S142), appropriate measures can be taken for the remote management system 30. Therefore, the monitoring system 50 can improve the stability of remote management of the image forming apparatus by the remote management system 30.

When the remote management system 30 has a failure having a high degree of similarity to the failure that occurred in the past (YES in S136), the monitoring system 50 responds to the failure that occurred in the past and is similar to the failure of the remote management system 30. Since the attached procedure is executed (S138), an appropriate procedure can be taken for the remote management system 30.

Since the monitoring system 50 notifies the remote management system 30 of a fault having a low degree of similarity to a fault that has occurred in the past (YES in S140), it notifies that the fault is a serious one (S141 to S142). Appropriate measures can be promptly taken for serious disabilities that have never been experienced before.

The monitoring system 50 determines the degree of similarity between the failure of the remote management system 30 and the failure that occurred in the past by using a specific learning algorithm (S124), so that convenience can be improved.

The monitoring system 50 detects a failure of the remote management system 30 based on not only the information acquired from the remote management system 30 but also the information acquired from the image forming apparatus and the cloud platform on which the remote management system 30 operates ( Since S121 to S122), the accuracy of detecting a failure of the remote management system 30 can be improved.

Note that the monitoring system 50 may execute the operation shown in FIG. 15 instead of the operation shown in FIG. The operation shown in FIG. 15 is to execute the processing of S151 instead of the processing of S138 and the processing of S139 in the operation shown in FIG. That is, in the operation illustrated in FIG. 15, the notification processing unit 58c determines in step S133 that the similarity to the failure moved to the failure history table 54e in step S131 is equal to or higher than the first similarity. If it is determined in S134 that the failure is indicated in step S134, the failure determined in S136 that the similarity to the failure moved to the failure history table 54e in S131 is equal to or higher than the first similarity is associated in the failure treatment table 54g. The specified action is included in the notification content scheduled to be notified to the notification destination determined in S132 (S151), and the process of S142 is executed.

When the remote management system 30 has a failure having a high degree of similarity to the failure that occurred in the past (YES in S136), the monitoring system 50 responds to the failure that occurred in the past and is similar to the failure of the remote management system 30. When notifying the attached action (S151 and S142), appropriate action can be taken to the remote management system 30.

In the present embodiment, the conditions for notification of failure occurrence in the notification destination determination table 54f include the location of the failure, the area where the failure occurred, the importance of the failure, and the location of the cause of the failure. However, the condition of the notification of the occurrence of the failure may not include at least one of the location of the failure, the area where the failure occurs, the importance of the failure, and the location of the cause of the failure.

In the present embodiment, the monitoring system 50 determines the notification destination of the notification in S142 in S132. However, the monitoring system 50 may always use the operation manager of the remote management system 30 as the notification destination of the notification in S142.

22 image forming apparatus 30 remote management system 31 command server 32 device management server 34 user management server 35 database 36 cache server 40 cloud provider server 50 monitoring system (computer)
54a Monitoring program 56 Information acquisition unit 57 Information analysis unit 58 Result notification unit

Claims

An information acquisition unit that acquires information from a remote management system that remotely manages the image forming apparatus;
An information analysis unit that analyzes the information acquired by the information acquisition unit;
And a result notifying section for notifying the result of the analysis by the information analyzing section,
The information analysis unit detects a failure of the remote management system based on the information acquired by the information acquisition unit,
The result notifying unit notifies a failure of the remote management system detected by the information analysis unit,
A monitoring system characterized by that.
The information acquisition unit,
The image forming apparatus;
The monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein the information is also acquired from at least one of an ICT base on which the remote management system operates.
The information analysis unit,
Time series,
The severity of the failure indicated by the information,
The similarity of the failure indicated by the information to the failure that occurred in the past,
The information according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the information is sorted and analyzed according to at least one criterion of whether or not a failure occurs simultaneously in a component different from the component from which the information was acquired. system.
The monitoring system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the information analysis unit determines a process associated with the detected failure.
When the failure of the remote management system analyzed by the information analysis section satisfies a preset condition, the result notification section notifies the failure to the notification destination set in association with this condition. The monitoring system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein:
The monitoring system according to claim 5, wherein the result notification unit transmits a message indicating the failure and a command for the processing.
The information analysis unit determines the importance of the detected failure,
7. The monitoring system according to claim 6, wherein the result notifying unit notifies the notification destination set in association with the degree of importance of the failure detected by the information analysis unit.
The information acquisition unit acquires information from an ICT platform on which the remote management system operates,
The information analysis unit collects information on a failure of the ITC base from the information acquired from the ICT base, and based on the failure of the remote management system and the failure of the ITC base, the information management unit of the remote management system. Determining whether the cause of the failure is due to the failure of the ICT base,
The result notification unit notifies the content of the failure of the remote management system when the information analysis unit determines that the factor of the failure of the remote management system is due to the failure of the ICT base. 3. The monitoring system according to claim 2, wherein a support request for the ICT-based provider is issued to the ICT-based provider.
The information analysis unit determines the degree of similarity between the detected failure of the remote management system and the failure of the remote management system that occurred in the past,
The monitoring system according to claim 3, wherein the result notifying unit notifies the detected failure of the remote management system with a notification content according to the similarity determined by the information analysis unit.
When the determined similarity is equal to or higher than a first similarity, the result notification unit determines that the detected similarity to the failure of the remote management system is equal to or higher than the first similarity. The monitoring system according to claim 9, wherein a treatment associated with the occurred fault is executed on the remote management system.
11. The monitoring system according to claim 10, wherein the result notifying unit includes the executed action in the notification content when the action is executed by the remote management system.
10. The result notification unit according to claim 9, wherein when the similarity determined by the information analysis unit is less than a second similarity, the result notification unit includes in the notification content a serious failure. Monitoring system.
The monitoring system according to any one of claims 9 to 13, wherein the information analysis unit determines the degree of similarity using a specific learning algorithm.
It is a monitoring method that uses a computer and a storage unit,
An information acquisition step of acquiring information from a remote management system that remotely manages the image forming apparatus;
An information analysis step of analyzing the information acquired in the information acquisition step,
And a result notifying step of notifying the result of the analysis in the information analyzing step,
The information analysis step includes a step of detecting a failure of the remote management system based on the information acquired in the information acquisition step, and the result notification step includes the remote management detected in the information analysis step. Has a process of notifying a system failure,
A monitoring method characterized by the above.
An information acquisition unit that acquires information from a remote management system that remotely manages the image forming apparatus;
An information analysis unit that analyzes the information acquired by the information acquisition unit;
And a result notifying unit for notifying the result of the analysis by the information analyzing unit,
The information analysis unit detects a failure of the remote management system based on the information acquired by the information acquisition unit,
The result notifying unit notifies a failure of the remote management system detected by the information analysis unit,
A monitoring program characterized by that.